The foreign population living in Portugal increased in 2022 for the seventh consecutive year, totaling 781,915 citizens, with the Brazilian community remaining the most representative and the fastest growing.

"In 2022 there was an increase in the resident foreign population for the seventh consecutive year, with an increase of 11.9% compared to 2021, totaling 781,915 foreign citizens holding a residence permit," says the Immigration, Borders and Asylum Report (RIFA), to which Lusa news agency had access on the occasion of the anniversary of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).

According to SEF, Brazilians remain the main foreign community residing in the country, accounting for 30.7% of the total last year, and it was also the community from Brazil that grew the most in 2022 (17.1%) compared to 2021, totaling 239,744.

The United Kingdom maintains its position in relation to 2021 with a growth of 5.8%, being the second most representative foreign nationality in Portugal.

"The sustained growth of foreign citizens from European Union countries confirms the particular impact of the attractiveness factors already pointed out in previous years, such as the perception of Portugal as a safe country, as well as the tax advantages resulting from the regime for non-habitual residents," says the report, which highlights immigrants from Angola, which rose three places to sixth place with an increase of 23.1%, and India, which is now the fourth most representative community.

Romania and China dropped out of the top ten nationalities in Portugal.

At the end of 2022, 239,744 Brazilians lived in Portugal, followed by citizens of the United Kingdom (45,218), Cape Verde (36,748), India (35,416), Italy (34,039), Angola (31,761), France (27,512), Ukraine (25,445), Nepal (23,839) and Guinea-Bissau (23,737).

SEF also reports that in 2022, Portugal was the country of destination for 44,519 Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war and who were granted temporary protection by the Portuguese state.

Immigrants live mainly on the coast, with around 65% registered in the districts of Lisbon, Faro and Setúbal, totaling 512,141 resident citizens, while in 2021 there were 466,779.

The report highlights the increases for the districts of Bragança, which had been falling since 2020, and Viana do Castelo, specifying that seven of the ten municipalities with the highest number of registered foreign citizens belong to the Lisbon metropolitan area.

With regard to the migratory flow, SEF says that the downward trend that had been occurring since 2020 has been broken, with 143,081 new permits issued, representing an increase of 28.5% compared to the previous year, when 111,311 new permits were issued.

The majority of new titles were also awarded to Brazilians (43,313), followed by Indians (7,414) and Italy (6,977), Angola (6,939) and Bangladesh (6,153).

"The most important reasons for granting new residence permits were professional activity (51,525) and family reunification (27,054)," reads the RIFA. (executivedigest)